Lighter than a Feather
by Aria Illusine
Summary: AU IruSaku, when Sakura takes refuge from a rainy day at a small and mostly-deserted coffee shop, she runs into the last person she expected, but the first person she wanted, to see behind the counter...songfic to Tyrone Wells' Happy as the Sun


A/N: This fic is dedicated to kougayurizoku, congrats on defeating Stress Mountain! XD (reminds me of the ride, Magic Mountain…but I guess that makes sense…stress gives you the same sick feeling as a roller coaster) And beta'd by the amazing Ginkan!

I Hope everyone reading this enjoys it; it's my very first songfic type story! I was basically singing the song for a day or two straight before I decided to crank this out in under 24 hours XD and the story is best read while playing said song, starting from the point of the fic where the lyrics begin. One of two Konoha sensei-with Tyrone Wells songfics in planning ^^ (if I find more inspiration in another one of his songs, I may write a third in the series but so far, this and the other fic are going to be all there is)

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or its characters, or the song 'Happy as the Sun', written and performed by the amazingly talented acoustic artist, Tyrone Wells. Go on, you really should listen to it!

* * *

**Lighter than a Feather**

"That _jerk!_"

The weather was perfect for the mood she was in, gloomy as a graveyard and pouring rain. And while she fumed in humiliated anger, she also knew that the only reason she wasn't back in the university library crying was because it was as if the heavens were doing all of that for her. Anger was preferable.

"Because _Karen's_ a better choice. Right."

The pant-legs of her jeans slapped wetly against her already-drenched ankles, dumping more rainwater into her sneakers as she hurried through the stormy afternoon.

"Idiot…"

She stopped in the middle of the street, suddenly stifled by the lump in her throat that threatened to turn into tears. "Idiot, idiot, idiot…don't you _dare_ cry, Sakura," she told herself, trying to work up more anger to keep the unhappiness at bay.

She blinked and looked around; needing something to keep her mind off of…she thrust the thought away. A coffee shop caught her eye, and without giving herself a moment to think, she darted inside.

It was almost completely deserted but warm, the heat easily thrusting away the chill running through her body from the mid-fall shower. A solitary man, messy dark hair falling into circular-lens sunglasses, sat at a table in the corner with his nose buried in an entomology textbook. The rest of the tiny café was empty, not even a barista at the counter. Soft music tickled the edges of her hearing, drowned out by the patter of rain against the window.

She drew level with the coffee shop's menu board with a wry little smile. "I guess coffee's out of the-,"

"Can I help you?"

The familiar voice made her jump and whirl around like a skittish creature, her pale cheeks going crimson with confusion.

"Iruka-sensei?"

=*~*~*=

The girl was scrutinizing the chalkboard menu, dripping umbrella by her side, her beige and crimson plaid newsboy hat pulled low over her eyes as she created a small puddle of rainwater at her feet.

He'd have to mop that up later.

Still, she looked like she could use something warm. He could tell she was shivering slightly as she stood by the counter as he reappeared from the kitchen.

"Can I help you?"

She whirled around, startled by his voice, and painfully familiar moss-green eyes met his as a blush stained his tan cheeks.

It would have to be her.

"Iruka-sensei?"

He tried to smile, nervousness skating over his senses. "Hello, Sakura. Would you like something to drink?"

Just as she finished re-evaluating their situation, the blush on her cheeks deepened several shades, those beautiful emerald eyes of hers flickering from his face to his apron.

"I-I..um…"

And then he noticed that there was tenseness in her figure that he rarely ever saw; her jade orbs were brighter than usual and glassy with…tears? His throat constricted as his hand under the counter curled into a fist. But his voice was level and kind as he smiled at her. "You usually drank cappuccinos in class right? I'll get you one."

"Thanks, Iruka-sensei," she said, reaching into her purse for her wallet. But her hands stilled as he shook his head.

"It's on the house, something for one of my favorite students," he told her with a cheerful smile and a wave of his hand, disappearing back into the kitchen as his voice floated back to her, "Take a seat at one of the tables, I'll bring your drink out to you."

"Fantastic," he groaned once out of sight. "Of all the people…"

In spite of having been accepted into Konoha University's PhD program, a grad student still needed to eke out a living. But he'd taken on the job at the coffee shop knowing that he might one day run into one of the students he taught as a Literature teaching assistant. He just…hadn't thought it'd be her.

Sakura had been the brilliant pupil, a quick study and a good literary analyst who wasn't above poking fun at the too-serious authors they studied. She, along with her best friends Naruto and Sasuke, had stood out from the usual crowd of freshmen and sophomores who took his class. And while Naruto might have been the one he'd felt the greatest kinship with – he too had been a prankster and loved a good practical joke, probably why he so appreciated Sakura's sense of humor – Sakura was…well…the student he wished he could have shared more with.

'_Why me?'_ he wondered with a sigh as he shed his apron, he'd been washing the dishes earlier (because the guy who usually worked the shift with him had called in sick too late for arrangements to be made for a replacement), and rolled down the sleeves of his white button-up shirt. He would now have to make his student a cup of coffee and endure the time she spent there as he tormented himself with the thought of how her opinion of him would change after finding him working as a poor barista at a tiny little café.

Thrusting the thought from his mind, he hurried to make the cappuccino. _'She liked French Vanilla right?'_

Pouring the steaming liquid into a pristine, white cup, he topped it with steamed milk, blushing at the sudden urge to decorate the surface of the drink with the café's usual heart latte art. Shaking his head, he instead changed it to a pair of leaves, something a little more appropriate for the season that had absolutely _nothing_ to do with his feelings.

And then with a last calming breath, he stepped out into the shop proper.

She was gone.

A sick, nauseous feeling turned his stomach as his chest tightened, leaving him aching. The pain of rejection stung worse than he had thought it would. _'She made her choice…'_

A light touch brushed his elbow.

"Oh, that's so pretty!"

=*~*~*=

"Thank goodness I was sleeping over at Tenten's yesterday," Sakura sighed, pulling out her pajamas from her backpack. While she felt a little awkward changing into her lime-green flannel pajama pants with the white maple leaf silhouettes all over while occupying a café bathroom, she would rather be somewhat warm and dry as opposed to keeping on her drenched jeans. If sunglasses-boy or Iruka-sensei had a problem with that, well, they weren't the ones courting colds in sodden pants.

Wringing out her drenched socks and pant-legs, she pulled on the pajama pants and a spare pair of flipflops she'd packed the day before. "Warmer," she told herself, satisfaction tinting her voice as she packed her socks into her towel, the jeans over her arm. She couldn't fit them into her towel, and she wasn't about to risk getting her textbooks wet.

With a last check of her appearance – she looked silly in a chocolate sweatshirt with Konoha U on the front in green and a pair of flannel pants, her strawberry-milk hair spilling haphazardly across her shoulders as she removed her hat – she shouldered her bag and emerged from the bathroom.

Iruka was standing by the counter, his back to her.

Frowning at the gentle slump of his shoulders – was he tired? She knew grad students worked hard, and he was probably working here now to make ends meet, but he looked like he could use a break – she reached out and took his elbow, her eyes landing on the cup.

Latte art of autumn leaves painted the foam on top of her drink.

"Oh, that's so pretty!"

"Sakura!"

She smiled up at him, jade orbs shining in admiration – she always felt admiration for this man, whether in the class or out of it – as she tapped his wrist lightly. "Did you do this?"

"Y-yes."

"It's beautiful! You're just full of surprises, aren't you Iruka-sensei," she teased.

"As are you," he replied, his chocolate-brown eyes reflecting an emotion she couldn't seem to place her finger on just then. "I could have sworn you came in here wearing jeans, but I seem to be mistaken?"

She laughed as she led him to a table by the window. "I slept over at Tenten's last night so I had a change of clothes. Good thing too," she added making a face at her drenched jeans. "I'd be freezing in those right now."

"Here, let's put them on the back of this chair. It's warm enough in here for them to be somewhat drier when you go," Iruka suggested, setting the drink on the tabletop as he took the jeans from her. Her fingers sliding against his as she relinquished her clothes made heat explode in his chest, and he turned away to hide the blush that dusted his tanned cheeks.

"Thanks, Iruka-sensei," the girl said with a small smile as she settled into the chair across from his and wrapped her chilled fingers around the pristine mug. "It really does look too pretty to drink."

"No, no!" he told her immediately, shaking his brunet head at her words. "Really, you look like you could use the warmth and I can always make more latte art…"

"I guess you're right," Sakura acquiesced, smiling as she took a sip. The hot liquid warmed her insides, spreading it out to the very tips of her toes as she hummed with pleasure. It was so nice, slowly filling herself with delicious coffee as she dried out from the chilly autumn rain and spent time in the presence of her favorite TA. It was as if the entire setting was erasing her stormy morning from her mind.

"So…how are Naruto and Sasuke?" Iruka asked, fiddling with the cuff of one sleeve of his white button-up.

"They're fine, sensei," she replied easily, frowning at the way he seemed to be avoiding her gaze, his concentration on his cuff. "Stop that, Iruka-sensei, you'll fray it." She caught the corner of his cuff with slim fingers as her viridian eyes caught his chocolate ones, dancing with shy mirth. "Really, you're a lot like Naruto. He worries things like this all the time; it drives me nuts."

And with the mention of his other students, or perhaps the touch of her hands, the grad student relaxed with a lopsided smile. "So, you said you slept over at Tenten's yesterday? Was it just for studying or is there some special occasion I should know about?"

=*~*~*=

It was pleasant, being able to talk so freely with his student again. He hadn't seen her, or been her TA, since the previous year, and he was surprised to realize just how much he'd missed the time they used to spend together. She came diligently to his discussions, dragging her two less-willing friends with her, and to his often-lonely office hours when no one else would.

And over time, they had developed a sort of friendship, though she'd never dropped the sensei honorific.

She had slowly gotten to know the person he was underneath the TA persona, as he had gotten beyond her literary analysis to the girl with big dreams and creative ideas.

He should have known that she wouldn't have pushed him away in spite of their no longer having the student-teacher bond to keep them together. She just wasn't that kind of person.

The thought was just enough to push him to finally voice the question he'd wanted to ask since he'd first caught sight of her eyes when she first appeared at the counter of his coffee shop. "How are things with you lately? Nothing…wrong?"

Her lips trembled, his brain suddenly screaming _'Oh crap, I should have just kept my big mouth shut, this is all my fault, why can't I keep myself from doing these things?'_ but then she took a breath and fixed him with a very serious, emerald-eyed gaze.

"I caught my boyfriend cheating on me this morning."

=*~*~*=

_Whenever this world gets the best of me_

_And it all goes wrong_

_I count down the hours 'til the time we meet_

_And I move along_

'_Cause I know that when I see you, I will be…_

=*~*~*=

Iruka hadn't realized his hand had clenched into a fist until it throbbed with the pain of nails being dug, hard, into his palm. His emotions were a chaotic whirl; he wasn't sure what upset him more: that she had a boyfriend, or that he'd been cheating.

She had someone.

Someone who had the relationship with her than he had grown to crave in the seven or eight months he had known her, and that someone had played with her as if the bond he had…had meant nothing.

It would have meant everything in the world to Iruka.

Bile and anger constricted his throat as he struggled to unclench the first resting on his knee under the table, where she couldn't see it. More than anything, he wanted to know whom it was she was dating, because there was nothing more he wanted to do than wreak painful havoc on that person's life.

Sakura didn't deserve to be treated the way she had. She deserved someone who would have treasured her heart, treating her with the respect she'd commanded from her fellow classmates in his Lit discussion. The brilliant girl before him deserved someone who recognized her intelligence, and how much she longed to be loved for herself, girlish personality and all.

As Iruka did.

"It's okay though," she continued, startling him. "I'm only upset that I didn't get to break it off with him first." A wry little smile tugged her lips. "I stopped liking him a while ago."

=*~*~*=

_Happy as the sun, lighter than a feather_

_Walking on the clouds when we are together_

_Every day with you just keeps getting better_

_The world's as it should be, when you are here with me_

_Here with me_

=*~*~*=

Sakura swirled a coffee stirrer through her drink as she hummed to herself, her eyes flickering out to the street as her smile deepened. "Look, Iruka-sensei; it stopped raining."

She was right. Weak, watery sunlight streamed down from steel-wool clouds to bathe her in warmth. Her rose-petal hair glowed gold-and-silver under the sudden illumination, her eyes fluttering closed as she let the sun caress her cheeks, turning her face towards it like a flower that had been kept too long in the dark.

Iruka drew it all in, trying to control the strange fluttering of his thoughts. He could vaguely hear the mellow strum of a guitar issuing through the café's speakers, but the echo of her words repeatedly being sounded out in his mind drowned it out.

_'I stopped liking him…a while ago…I stopped…'_

And his traitorous heart thrust words on his tongue, completely bypassing the censoring properties of his brain.

"Why did you stop?"

_'Liking him. Why did you stop?'_

The words floated between them, almost visible in the strange shimmer of the sunlight that flowed through raindrop prisms to scatter rainbows across their table.

Emerald green eyes shot open and flew to him, then away. "Iruka-sensei…"

"I'm sorry," he apologized quickly, regaining control of his perfidious tongue. "That was rude of me. It's none of my business, is it…"

"N-no…i-it's not that…" she stammered, her cheeks growing warm again, "I just…I…"

Her voice dropped to a shy whisper, as if the words she said were for herself more than him.

"I…I like someone else now."

=*~*~*=

_Whenever you leave, my heart skips a beat_

_Like it knows you're gone_

_Unless you're here I am incomplete_

_Like an undone song_

_Only you inspire the melody in me_

=*~*~*=

A terrifying thunder filled his ears; the sound of his own heart magnified a thousand fold.

Moss-green eyes caught his from beneath delicate lashes, which veiled a shy question that he was almost too afraid to answer. He couldn't begin to comprehend it; the sugar-sweet blush that made rosebuds bloom in her cheeks, the shine in her eyes that mingled nervousness and fear with a sweetheart's joy, the curve of her lips as they tried to smile.

It all coiled around him, coalescing into a heart-stopping emotion that heated his face until the scar that marred the bridge of his nose stood out against the crimson. Surrounded by the sun and filled with an intensely warm feeling of pure joy, it seemed to him that he was encircled in a corona of light. The look in her eyes, though so dear to him, made doubt cloud his mind for a moment after overwhelming him. The happiness he felt was surely not meant for him! It couldn't possibly be meant for him.

She'd stopped fiddling with the coffee stirrer, her slim fingers, lovely fingers, beautiful fingers, _her_ fingers, resting gently against the pristine ceramic mug. It was enticing, tantalizing, and he knew that touching her now would change everything between them.

His fingers slid across the tabletop to hers.

=*~*~*=

_I'm happy as the sun, lighter than a feather_

_Walking on the clouds when we are together_

_Every day with you just keeps getting better_

_The world's as it should be, when you are here…_

=*~*~*=

Her fingertips slid against his, light and teasing; shy. An elated smile rushed over his features, his larger fingers tangling with her smaller ones that were still warm from holding onto her coffee cup. A warm blush lit her cheeks, the smile that slowly blossomed across her lips reaching her eyes to spark their jade-green depths with happiness.

He felt like he was floating on air, as lightheaded as though he'd been hot air ballooning for hours. She was everything he had wanted, sitting now in front of him with that sweet, girlish smile on her face, filling him with sudden delight that was almost too much to take.

"Sakura…I…"

The bell above the café door rang as two of his co-workers arrived in a rush of boots and splashed puddles.

"Hey Iru-Oh! Oh we'll uh…I mean…"

=*~*~*=

_How could I go wrong?_

_When you are here with me_

_How could I be anything but smiling?_

=*~*~*=

"Shift change already, Izumo?" Iruka asked, not bothering to tear his eyes away from the rose-haired girl seated across from him. "I'm clocking out then. I'll see you guys tomorrow."

"Not sticking around?" Kotetsu teased, throwing an arm around his shyer counterpart, Izumo fidgeting as he protested quietly at the question.

The brunet shook his head with a quirked grin. "Nope, I'm giving Sakura a ride home. She really shouldn't be walking home in her wet jeans."

"O-of course not," Izumo agreed quickly, pushing his best friend's arm off him as he shoved the still-grinning other coffee shop employee behind the counter and into the kitchen. "See you tomorrow."

Sakura flashed a smile at the grad student. "I'm getting a ride?"

He grinned in response. "On the house."

=*~*~*=

_I'm happy as the sun, lighter than a feather_

_Walking on the clouds when we are together_

_Every day with you just keeps getting better_

_The world's as it should be, when you are here with me._

_The world's as it should be_

_When you are here, when you are here_

_When you are here with me_

=*~*~*=

"S-since when did you…"

"Two weeks before midterms."

"…That early?"

A blush and a shy laugh, "Sensei…"

"…"

"S-sorry…I mean…I-Iruka…"

It was the nicest thing he'd ever heard.

* * *

XD Iruka-sensei was my first Naruto crush, so of course I HAD to write an IruSaku fic (I'm living vicariously through her in this instance...and many other instances...) and since then I've felt the urge to write fics of Saku pairings that don't get as much love. SasoSaku for example.

The Iruka here is based off of my AU version of Iruka in a chapter fic idea I've been tossing around entitled Champagne (inspired by red-flower11's Thirty One Guys in Thirty One Days fic). If you like him this way, please give me a shoutout, I might actually get working on Champagne earlier than later!

The muse would appreciate your honest feedback ^^ thank you!


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